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July 24, 2012

Yankees Rent A Declining Ichiro

At the plate in 2012, new Yankee outfielder Ichiro Suzuki can best be summed up as "Mike Aviles without the power".

AVG OBP SLG OPS+
Suzuki: .261 .288 .353 83
Aviles: .262 .286 .412 83

While Suzuki can still play right field, he has been in serious decline as a hitter since 2010, and, at age 38, is not running as often. He's a free agent at the end of this season, so New York is renting a replacement-level platoon hitter with a very famous name for about three months at a fairly low cost. He'll do the job in the field in Brett Gardner's absence and his noodle bat won't make much of a difference one way or the other in the lineup.

A question: How can Ichiro and Aviles have the same OPS+ when Aviles has a higher OPS and OPS+ isn't positionally adjusted (and if it was Aviles would get a bump by virtue of being a shortstop instead of a right fielder)?